


To Listen and be Heard

by Dagonet (AgentDagonet)



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Eggsy can hear every rock and tree and creature, Gen, Like Disney's Pocahontas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-20
Updated: 2019-06-20
Packaged: 2020-05-15 05:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19289275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentDagonet/pseuds/Dagonet
Summary: The hangar window echoed Harry’s comment about his dad, said that it was so glad to see a soul like Lee’s in the halls again.There was a reason Merlin was lying to them, the parachutes said, and it was important. So Eggsy pretended he hadn’t Heard and tried to get everyone to ground safely. But fuckin’ Rufus had to cock it up and things went so fast that, honestly, Eggsy forgot that Merlin was lying.Eggsy forgot to Listen. That became a pattern, this time it wasn’t entirely purposeful, and Eggsy cursed himself for having finally accomplished that feat when the laptop echoed his own screams. A man he’d barely known, but wished to- the opportunity stolen by a madman.





	To Listen and be Heard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elletromil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elletromil/gifts).



> Hey all- I know Echoes is due for an update, but this idea hasn't left me alone since my big move. I've been plucking away at t bit by bit, and I finally feel like it's ready for you! I promise, though, that I am working on Echoes. It's happening. For real.
> 
> I'm gifting this to my wonderful Elle because I feel like this kind of strange, simple, magic is the kind of thing she'd enjoy.

When Eggsy was little, he learned to Listen.

          His dad would stop him when they were playing, and ask what he heard. He’d ask him what the bugs sounded like, the leaves in the wind, what the birds were saying to each other. And Eggsy would tell him, very seriously, that the bugs were angry about the very large things stepping all over their houses, that the leaves were letting each other know about the storm coming that night, and that the birds were arguing over a place to perch overhead.

Lee would laugh and swing Eggsy up onto his shoulders, congratulating him on his amazing ears, before starting the game anew.

          When his dad died, Eggsy could Hear his clothes telling him when they were too dirty to wear, or how to fold them just right, and how to wash them proper. The fridge would let him know what was edible, and how he could make it safely; the doors would let him know when his mum was too out of it to open them herself. It was the only way anything got done, those first few years; despite how sad he was that his dad wasn’t coming home, Eggsy could keep him alive by Listening. If only a little.

          When his mum met Dean, the door worried about the unkind man helping his mother through the house. The walls complained about the subtle violences they now had to witness. The sofa was beside itself for having to support such a man and his friends. Eggsy’s belongings gave a litany of apologies for the circumstances he found himself in. His shoes apologised for their inability to lead him to safety, his shirts for their wear and tear causing him to be insufficiently shielded by the elements.

The medal always begged for Eggsy to make the call, and apologised for not being able to do more.

          Training for the Marines was nearly impossible when the weapons were all unwilling participants, when private sorrows were made known to him and he could no longer make eye contact with the others, when the very housing they were assigned seemed to want nothing more than to convince everyone to leave at the earliest opportunity.

When his mum had called, talking about a sister, he hadn’t had to think before making a choice.

          Eggsy Listened to Daisy’s toys, a surefire way to know Dean hadn’t done anything to her, and blankets to know how to help her get the best rest. His mum was lost in the bottle, still, so often and Dean was never going to be a dad- so it fell to him to care for her safety.

          Eggsy never stopped Listening- he’d tried, after Dean had hit him for the first time, unwilling to Hear the horrified sadness that seeped from the house, but he couldn’t turn it off. He did his level best to ignore it, oftimes doing the opposite of whatever he Heard, and had more than once cursed the memory of his father for leaving him with this talent. The memory had become warped and worn with age.

          The worst things to Hear were stolen. Either Eggsy was told the sordid affair as if it were a drama on the telly, or whatever it was would be crying into the seeming-void about the injustice done to their family. If Eggsy was made to nick something, though, Listening came in handy- you wouldn’t believe how many things just… don’t want to be where they are. A chance to see something beyond the space they’ve been kept in- no matter petty human laws. He’d managed to skirt the edge of discovery a hundred times just by Listening and acting accordingly.

          So on the day Rottie pushed a bit too far at the Prince, when Eggsy’s jacket whispered an apology and his hat spat vitriol, Eggsy Heard Rottie’s keys wish there was something they could do to stop him. If there was one thing Eggsy was shit at doing, it was ignoring things that need help, and who else could possibly do anything in this circumstance?

This time, when the medal begged and apologised in equal measure, Eggsy called- it thanked him, softly.

The hangar window echoed Harry’s comment about his dad, said that it was so glad to see a soul like Lee’s in the halls again.

          There was a reason Merlin was lying to them, the parachutes said, and it was important. So Eggsy pretended he hadn’t Heard and tried to get everyone to ground safely. But fuckin’ Rufus had to cock it up and things went so fast that, honestly, Eggsy forgot that Merlin was lying.

          Eggsy forgot to Listen. That became a pattern, this time it wasn’t _entirely_ purposeful, and Eggsy cursed himself for having finally accomplished that feat when the laptop echoed his own screams. A man he’d barely known, but wished to- the opportunity stolen by a madman.

          The butterflies spoke all at once, nonsensical.

Mr. Pickle was sad in a way that didn’t need words when Eggsy came down the stairs.

 _I’m poisoned,_ the glass whispered to its mate, _it feels slimy._

 _He’s betrayed us all_ , the pen growled, _with no care for the world we are supposed to protect._

          Roxy’s gun apologised. Eggsy was so _tired_ of Hearing apologies.

          The suit bid him welcome, spoke of the care and love that went into the selection of the fabric, spoke highly of Harry’s mischief in convincing Dagonet of crafting them into the Kingsman style despite his not having been Knighted.

          Once Eggsy knew what the chips sounded like, he could Hear them clearly. _We don’t belong here_ _we don’t belong here we don’t belong here we don’t belong here_

 _Thank you_ in eerie thousand-fold as the fireworks began.

\-----

The door to the Prince is tired when Eggsy gets there. His suit had thanked him for repairing instead of tossing- and for the first time in far too long Eggsy had responded.

          ‘The fuck would I get rid of you for? You’re literally the only reason I’m still alive at this point. Besides,’ Eggsy swallowed, and rubbed one thumb against the fabric slowly, ‘you’re the only thing Harry ever really gave me, y’know?’

 _You have more of him than you know_ the suit replied as he pushed open the door.

          Eggsy let himself Listen again, when the dust settled. More than that, even. He focused on it, trained it as one would any other skill, and stretched every one of the boundaries he encountered. He could tell you the conversations happening within an anthill, he nursed a dead garden back to life by conversing with the soil, he developed an unerring eye for fabrics that had Dagonet eyeing him strangely.

          The scissors told him that Dagonet could nearly Listen, once, but he’d dismissed it as intuition and imagination. Not everyone born with such a gift knew what it was- or how to use it.

\-----

          The Galahad house greeted him with wholehearted apathy, the first day After; a blank slate. Everything that made the house Harry’s was still there, but all the Voices were gone. It was stifling, and Eggsy couldn’t take it for more than an hour.

          ‘Look, I know I ain’t gonna be him. I know that you had a long history an’ shit and it’s not fair that the last thing he did here was leave in anger. I know that was my fault, and I don’ expect you to love me like you did him- not now, and prolly not ever to be honest. But… don’t try to erase him, especially if it’s just cos that’s what’d be _proper_.

          ‘You’re allowed to mourn him like everybody else, an’ it’s okay if you don’t know how that is just yet.’

_Who is he talking to- he doesn’t have glasses on, and no one else is here._

          ‘Has no one spoken to you before?’ Eggsy glanced about the space, a small frown marring his features, before he sighed and slumped into a chair.

_Spoken to who?_

          ‘To you!’

_You can hear us?_

          ‘Yeah, I’m sorry you’ve been alone all this time.’

_We don’t understand- alone? Being without a person doesn’t make us so._

          ‘You’re right, sorry- I keep cocking this up. I just wanted you to know that you don’t need to pretend just cos I’m around. I know it ain’t much, but I can give you time, and I don’t plan on changing much of anything here, if you don’t mind me staying?’

_You’re asking permission?_

          ‘It’s not like I’ve got anythin’ left to lose- and no one else would think of it, would they?’

_Stay as long as you like- Harry would have wanted it no other way._

\-----

Eggsy learned more about Harry in the months after Kentucky than he ever really wanted to know.

          That was a lie, but it was the one that allowed him to function best.

The day he walked through the door to silence put him immediately on edge- whether he was half-dead or right as rain the door had greeted him as he got home.

          ‘Are you alrigh’?’

 _Shh, he’s sleeping._ Eggsy relaxed minutely with the reply before processing it fully and tensing.

          ‘Who’s here? How’d he get in?’ Eggsy whispered as he made his way through the front of the house, watch primed and finger on the trigger, both as deference to the house’s request for quiet and to keep his location quiet from whoever the intruder was.

 _He’s come such a long way_ Eggsy rounded the corner to the sitting room and froze, his arms fell loosely to his sides and his lips parted with a small gasp. _Let him sleep._ Now that Eggsy wasn’t focused on the mysterious stranger, he could Hear the house humming in celebration.

          The butterflies were buzzing about as always, but in excited tones- Mr Pickle was simply beside himself, a name over and over. The couch nattered about the weight curled upon it and the fridge was whisper-yelling ideas for dinner at Eggsy as if he was in any state to comprehend them. He rubbed fruitlessly at his eyes, trying to drive away tears that filled them but refused to fall; he pinched his waist harshly and swore beneath his breath.

          Curled upon the couch was Harry, for it could be no one else, arms tucked beneath his head like a child and legs curled as tightly as possible. The eyepatch was new, and his clothes were in a sadder state than most of what Eggsy had seen since leaving the estates, but even relaxed in a way Eggsy had never seen before Harry was- was-

          ‘Harry’s alive. Buggering _fuck_ the bastard’s alive.’ He ran a hand through his hair, pulled slightly at the roots, before nodding to himself. Eggsy pulled a blanket from the hall closet, something soft and new, and laid it atop Harry’s sleeping form before he made his way to the kitchen to heed at least one of the fridge’s suggestions.

          Eggsy had never just let himself act on autopilot before. Even when callous, his actions were thought through- just not very well. But he couldn’t _think_ when Harry was _right there_ and whatever the house told him to do it would be done. They knew him best, after all.

          He’d never Listened so much in his life- the spoons and jars told him when to stop adding this or that, the stovetop when to adjust the heat, the kettle how to make tea precisely as Harry liked it. Eggsy bustled about the kitchen in a way that he never had before- as if he belonged there, as if somehow Harry being in the space made it _more_ Eggsy’s as opposed to less.

          Eggsy had finished dinner and cleaned up the mess when he heard Harry begin to stir. He’d been talking quietly to the house, asking about Harry’s arrival though he’d already heard the tale thrice over, when the first groan came. Eggsy set himself about dishing up a small portion of food and bringing it to the coffee table.

          ‘Time to eat, sleeping beauty.’ Eggsy’d decided while cooking that he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of the events of this afternoon. He’d gladly take whatever Harry would be willing to share, when it came to an explanation, and not push for more. He wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

What he hadn’t been expecting was Harry to sit up so quickly that he nearly fell off the couch, tangled in the blanket as he was, at the sound of his voice.

          ‘Eggsy?’ _The boy is real, then._ The eyepatch muttered to itself.

          ‘What d’you mean by real, mate?’ Eggsy responded without thinking, and chuckled to himself before remembering that he had just responded to an inanimate object when there was a human being both conscious and in front of him. Shit.

          ‘Pardon?’ _You can hear me?_

          ‘Sorry, Harry- thought I heard you question your reality for a second there. I’m here and listening, though.’ _Yes, he can hear you._ The couch replied, and Eggsy sighed in relief- the house could take it from here. ‘An’ you’ve got some soup and toast to eat,’ Eggsy gestured to the bowl, ‘and tea to wash it down before you go up to your room and get some proper rest.’

          ‘I wouldn’t put you out, Eggsy, the sofa-’

          ‘As much as I’m sure the sofa enjoys having you back, I’m positive the bed would be even more so. And you wouldn’t be putting me out- I never really moved out of the guest room; frankly I’ve been more a caretaker than a resident, mate.’ _We couldn’t have asked for a better companion_ the frames whispered, and Eggsy smiled a bit to himself before heading back into the kitchen and serving himself some of the soup.

          ‘How…?’ Harry was sat up, one hand holding the spoon as the other lay loosely in his lap. ‘Eggsy?’

          ‘M’yeah? What’s wrong?’ Eggsy walked back in with a bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other, and settled himself into the armchair before raising an eyebrow in Harry’s direction. The entire moment was so casual that Harry could have sworn it had happened a thousand times before and it threw him completely.

          ‘You’re taking this very well, for having arrived home to a dead man in your sitting room.’

          ‘First off, it’s _your_ sitting room; second, I got home ages ago- I got in, saw you asleep, had my moment all quiet like, and decided you looked like you needed a meal. I made you soup and tea and toast cos I figured tha’s light and I dunno what shit you’ve been through in the past few months but you looked like you needed somethin’ homey.’ Eggsy shrugged, careful not to spill his soup before slurping obnoxiously directly from the bowl, having seemingly forgotten the spoon in his other hand. ‘Fuck, that’s good.’ _You got it just right_ the kitchen sang, and Eggsy hummed back as he took another not-so-delicate sip.

          ‘I see Knighthood hasn’t polished you much.’

‘Oi- I’m a fuckin’ diamond in the rough, yeah? Like Aladdin and shit; don’t need to fix what ain’t broken.’

          ‘Does that make me the Genie in this scenario?’

‘Whatever floats your boat, bruv.’ They sat together in silence, eating their respective meals while the house chattered about feeling whole again. _We do hope you’ll stay, Eggsy._

          ‘You ain’t gettin’ rid of me that easily.’ It’s murmured, but even that was loud enough to draw Harry’s attention. He raised an eyebrow in Eggsy’s general direction as he took a sip of his tea before his eyes flew open and the cup was set down firmly.

          ‘How did you know that?’ _Maybe we went a little bit overboard with the welcome home…_ the fridge worried, and the kettle agreed, but Eggsy didn’t let his shock show as his mind raced with possible explanations that didn’t involve explaining that the kettle told him.

‘Know what?’

          ‘How I took- take- my tea?’

‘You made us tea for that lesson, remember? Etiquette, before Kentucky?’

          ‘I don’t recall you having an eidetic memory.’

          ‘It’s a little hard to forget you in that apron- y’beat up Dean’s goons in a suit, you bring me to fuckin’ spy school and get yourself blown up, and then you teach me how to hold a fuckin’ fork proper in a tie and _apron?’_ Eggsy made it sound incredulous, but Harry’s expression hadn’t shifted a bit- he deflated, curled in on himself and rubbed one finger across the side of his bowl before locking eyes with Harry. ‘I missed you. I felt like I fucked everythin’ up, like I threw you off before you went off on your big mission and then _you died._ I saw that bullet come right at me through that fuckin’ screen and I blamed myself cos if I hadn’t cocked it up maybe you’d’ve had backup or something. I dunno.

          ‘But you said you’d handle shit when you got back, but you weren’t comin’ back, so I had to handle it and… I didn’t, really.’ Eggsy shrugged one shoulder, the other hand coming up to run through his hair. ‘I did what I could- I got Valentine, saved the world, and I came back an’ the house was still empty but I couldn’t make myself change anything. You were the only person who’d ever really believed in me, I didn’t want to forget you somehow, so I just… dusted, and snooped, and tried to remember as much as I could.’ The only way to talk around something is to obscure it with the truth. You don’t lie, you merely play with your words so they paint the picture you intend to portray rather than the truth in its entirety.

 _You’re very good at talking your way around a problem_ the eyepatch praised, and somehow that’s what made him blush, the compliment of this new part of Harry that hadn’t known him Before. But, given the circumstances, he figured he could be forgiven.

          Harry was staring at Eggsy like he hadn’t seen him before, like he had somehow managed to accomplish the impossible. _‘You_ got Valentine? But surely one of the senior Knights-’

          ‘Tha’s what you’re taking from that? Harry, the whole thing was fucked from the beginning- Arthur set me up to fail, you up to die, and the world up to kill itself long as he and his was safe. Couldn’t trust no one else, yeah? So Merlin and I ended up stormin’ the gates, Rox went to space to blow up a satellite, and the world _still_ almost went to shit cos I had to pretend to be Chester bloody King and fuckin’ _Charlie_ was there and blew my cover- but we did it.’ The best distractions are self-made; tie them up with their own string. It felt wrong to be using these lessons on Harry, but that it was working was a testament all its own. _It’s been a long journey home- but hopefully he’ll be set to rights soon_ the worn clothes sighed.

          ‘I- I’m not sure I understand, but perhaps you’re right. Maybe I do need some proper rest. But,’ Harry paused, briefly looking Eggsy from head to foot, ‘I’m very glad to have come back to you doing so well. I knew you had the makings of a Kingsman the moment you went off on me at the Prince.’ Harry took another spoonful of soup, and dabbed his mouth once with a napkin before speaking again. ‘But that still doesn’t explain how you managed my mother’s recipe for this soup.’ Shit.

          ‘I said I went snooping, didn’t I?’ Eggsy thanked his mouth for running ahead of his brain as it once again saved his arse. ‘Old files, the boxes in the attic, anythin’ I found in the laptop or came across when fuckin’ about at headquarters… I don’ remember where I learned this shit but it sounded good- couldn’t get myself to make it before today, though, so I’m glad I didn’t fuck it up. Not that I’d’ve known without you here an’ all.’

          ‘Hmm.’ Harry seemed to let the conversation go, there, finishing his soup before he stood and stretched widely and Eggsy couldn’t stop himself from standing as well.

          ‘Welcome home, Harry,’ for a moment Eggsy contemplated reaching forward and embracing him, but despite all the things Eggsy now knew about Harry he knew that he would find it more than a bit strange- and Eggsy didn’t want Harry to linger on the strangeness. He wanted Harry to settle back into life and thrive again. So, as Harry made his way up the stairs, Eggsy grabbed a set of glasses and sat himself back down in the armchair.

          ‘Hey, Merthur, I know it’s tits o’clock in the morning at this point but I figured you’d wanna know the bastard’s alive.’

‘Eggsy, I’m sure that sentence made sense in one way or another but I’m in the middle of setting up-’

          ‘Harry’s alive, Merlin.’

‘... I don’t think I heard you right, lad, did you just-’

          ‘Harry’s alive, missing an eye but alive, an’ he’s currently asleep upstairs since I finally got him to go to bed proper.’

‘Not that I don’t believe you, Eggsy, but… do you have some sort of evidence? A blanket and a set of dishes don’t mean much in our line of work, you know that.’

          ‘I can do you one better,’ Eggsy smirked to himself, and glanced idly at the crumpled napkin on the coffee table, ‘and get you a sample you can test for your bloody self.’

\-----

‘Ain’t you glad I refused Galahad, Merls?’ Eggsy panted out, twisting about a corner so quick two of the goons skidded into one another behind him.

          ‘At this point I’m mad you didn’t refuse the position entirely, you enormous thorn in my backside,’ Merlin groused, ‘Take the next window, Gawain.’ _There’s more men with large guns across the way, that’s not safe!_ The glass panicked, not knowing it was Heard, and Eggsy ignored Merlin’s instructions and instead made his way to the roof, Listening to the walls complain of their damage and the fire escape grumbling about being treated like a landing pad.

          ‘Which way?’ It was said to the empty air, and Merlin grumbled something about him ignoring instructions so why bother giving any. ‘I’m Listening- which way.’ _Over here_ he Hears Harry’s eyepatch, a whisper on the wind he could hear a kilometre away, and is off like a shot before Merlin could say a word. He made his way down the building to the street, and landed just around the corner from Harry’s in-process car-jacking.

          ‘How did you-’ Harry was already shifting his weight to give Eggsy room to take over- all the training in the world couldn’t make up for years of survival experience, according to the Kingsman track records, and that was before Kentucky. _It’s faster if you do it the other way_ the car says, and Eggsy just knows that it’s had to see some shit. He takes the suggestion before shoving Harry to the passenger side and hopping behind the wheel.

          ‘D’you trust me?’ _This is exciting!_

‘Is this more of your Aladdin nonsense?’ Eggsy’s lip twitched on one end as he revved the engine.

\-----

          ‘What’re you thinking about?’ Eggsy sat beside Harry on the balcony, idly keeping tabs on what the flowers were gossiping about for lack of people-watching to do, while Harry looked lost in thought.

          ‘Everything, nothing; how so much and yet nothing has changed.’ Harry sounded so lost, and Eggsy couldn’t help but take a deep breath. He thought of his dad, of the wind and the leaves and the birds above their heads, and smiled.

‘D’you trust me?’ Maybe it was time to try and share.

          ‘For what must be the thousandth time: yes, Eggsy, I trust you. You can stop with the Disney nonsense.’

‘Close your eye. Take a breath,’ Eggsy tried to find a good place to start. ‘What’re you not thinking about?’

          ‘What?’

‘What’re you not thinking about?’

          ‘Many things, I imagine, but how am I to know if I’m not thinking about them?’ Harry sounded confused, but not sceptical.

‘You’ve got to empty your head, and see what comes to fill the gaps.’ Harry kept his eye shut, and hummed to himself idly for a while before speaking.

          ‘You never really answered my question.’

‘Which one?’

          ‘About my mother’s recipe.’

‘It’s been months, Harry, how d’you even remember that? You were half out of it just from exhaustion.’

          ‘It never really left- you said you snooped, so I snooped. I went through my files and the attic and even questioned Merlin once but it’s not written anywhere. I checked.’ Eggsy had to keep himself from grimacing- having decided to try and teach Harry to Listen was one thing. Admitting that his house had instructed him on how to cook an old family recipe while he’d been in a stupor was quite another.

          But, there was nothing to be done about it now- it seemed that, as always, Harry was all-or-nothing. Even when he didn’t even know what ‘all’ entailed.

‘I Listened.’

**Author's Note:**

> As always, find me on tumblr at [AgentDagonet](http://www.agentdagonet.tumblr.com)


End file.
